1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector for a sheet-like connection member such as a flexible printed circuit or cable (FPC), a flexible flat cable (FFC) and so forth. All of these cables and circuit hereafter will be generally referred to as “FPC” for simplification.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional FPC connector generally includes an insulative housing formed with an FPC inserting portion, a plurality of terminals loaded in parallel relationship with a predetermined pitch in the insulative housing and each including at least a contact beam for electrically contacting the FPC and a pivot beam integrally extending from the contact beam, and a pivoting actuator for establishing electrical contact between the conductors of the FPC and contact beams of the terminals. Typical connectors of this type can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,740 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-250147.
However, as the terminal including at least two beams (the contact beam and the pivot beam) is a one-piece structure, it is required the housing to provide a substantially like cavity for correspondingly receiving the terminal. Forming of such kinds of terminal receiving cavities would diminish the structural strength of the FPC connector. On the other hand, as the contact beam extends down from the pivot beam and then is bent to be parallel to the pivot beam, there is a long way from the contact point (which is adapted to electrically contact the FPC) of the contact beam to the solder pat. Thus the transmission path of electrical signals in the terminal is long and the impedance of the terminal is large, which would largely reduce the transmission efficiency of the FPC connector.
Therefore, a new FPC connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the prior arts.